In an effort to expand social security to Malawian workers and to overcome the numerous challenges of the country's workers compensation system, the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development, with support from the ILO, is undertaking efforts to establish a more efficient and effective employment injury system that is in line with International Labour Standards on Social Security and Malawi's labour laws.

The ILO’s World Social Protection Report 2017-19 provides recent data on social protection systems around the world, and monitors progress towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. It shows that more efforts are needed to extend coverage in many countries, but achieving universal social protection is possible.

Employment injury benefit schemes, providing benefits in cash and in kind in cases of work-related accidents and occupational disease, constitute the oldest branch of social security in many countries. The ILO has estimated that, worldwide, more than 2.3 million people die from work-related accidents or diseases each year. Employment injuries and work-related diseases cause the deaths of 6,300 workers per day around the world.

Workers who were victims of Rana Plaza were uninsured and intensive efforts to compensate them had to be made after the fact. The ILO says the accident is a wake-up call to establish national employment injury insurance so all workers are protected when accidents happen.

Cambodian workers who are injured at work or in transit to their workplace now benefit from a government-run system of insurance thanks to an ILO/Korea Partnership project. The National Social Security Fund is a worker compensation scheme that is self-sufficient and overseen by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training. When a claim is approved, the fund provides in-kind and cash benefits regardless of whether the individual is able to return to full-time employment.